“Where do you plan on finding Antonella?” the headmaster asked as we head out of the headmaster’s office.
“The Seven Table Milieus Executive is going to resurrect the Grand Arch Wizard, so they will gather at the place where black mahò is strongly concentrated.” I hypothesized.
“The Crooked Forest, where the black dimension is continuously getting bigger,” the frantic William said.
Since earlier he was restless and wanted to follow the milieus immediately, but he knows it would be impossible by himself. He does not care of gets caught but what he is worried about is not being able to save his sister.
“But why was Antonella Locke kidnapped? Was it because she was a Locke?” Huly Saint Harper asked.
Huly was the guy from the Aces who was always with Gale Luke Zandrea, the comical daughter of the capital head of Einsheyl. It is faint but I could feel a strange connection between them.
“No matter how I see it, that is not the reason. Why would they need to abduct the owner of the academe when they could easily infiltrate it? they even have a traitor inside the academe. The reason should be something more focused on that girl.”
Even though I don’t really feel Lucianna, I am still amazed by her intellect. The fast internalizing and the power she holds, no doubt she was part of the aces and was the second strongest white mahò.
“Do you perhaps know anything that could be the reason William?” Mayo turned to William.
But William shook his head. This was hopeless; he was so panicked that it would be hard to extract information.
“What did Mr. Locke said headmaster?” I asked him.
He looks taken aback when I turned to him. There was shock on his face as if he could not believe I was talking to him. What is this? Is it because he knew I was the goddess?
“Mr. Locke, he, he was very worried about his daughter that he wanted to mobilize the militia and all the wiz soldiers under his wing,”
“Did you stop him?” Monk Amon asked with danger in her eyes.
“Of course, we cannot afford to be careless,”
“I assured him that we would rescue her daughter before the day ends, but if we could not rescue Antonella he will mobilize the soldiers “
He truly loves his daughter; I heard he even stirred the whole town when Antonella was young since she was sickly. She could not even get out of bed when she was young. Wait, how did she recover?
“Who healed Antonella when she was young?” my question popped out of nothing.
Everyone gave me strange gazes,
“She was blessed by the god of the sun that’s why she recovered right?” Mayo answered amidst the silence.
Marco? But the time period does not make sense, the gates should already be closed at that time.
“How did that happen?” I am confused. Really.
“A hooded mahò user came once, my father was already so distressed since there was still no one who could cure Nellie, so when someone, even if it’s a total stranger came telling the god of the sun’s blessings will heal Nellie, we had no choice but to hold on to that hope.” William narrated.
Marco is not even a god of healing, how could his mere blessings cure Antonella?
“How did the stranger help you acquire the god’s blessings?”
“He brought Nellie to the temple, where the gods could easily hear their worshippers, after that when Nellie came back she could already walk. We were told afterwards to never disclose the information.” There was remorse in William’s face as if he was regretful that he told us about this certain thing.
I patted his shoulder to ease his uneasiness.
“But William, the temple has never accommodated the lady Locke. There has never been an incident where she came there when she was a sickly child.” Monk Amon spoke of a revelation that made our hearts thump fast.
“What does that mean?” William exclaimed
“It means the answer for this predicament lies in the reason of Antonella’s gaining of good health,” Monk Amon answered filtering her words.
William’s face became distressed. The revelation an all new knot for him.
“Do you know where that hooded mahò user is right now?”
“No, he disappeared the moment Antonella returned home.”
“Did he perhaps leave something, or told you something before leaving?” I queried.
William ruffled his head in confusion.
“I don’t kno—wait, there was something that disturbed us.
But we brushed it off, we were more thankful for Antonella’s recovery. The payment he wanted was for Antonella to attend school later than what she was meant too. That was the only thing he asked.”
I concluded a very terrible theory in my head. I could not even try to speak it to them. Did the enemy perhaps know of my coming? Was it their plan to make Antonella my friend? Was everything a conspiracy? What if…
“For now, we should move and rescue Antonella. I believe it would be enough to gather answers.” Johann spoke breaking my negative thoughts.
“Alright, everyone should get ready. But the only people who would go into the enemy lair would be me and Johann.”
“What? Why would you do that?” Lucianna asked in suspicion not quite trusting my words. Even though Lucianna was contradicting me only mildly now, perhaps because there was the fact that I was a goddess, the distaste for me was still there.
“Listen, here’s the plan,”
********
The silence in the Crooked Forest made it more eerie. It was very strange. We were not encountering any monsters even though we are already passed the green zone.
The air was also heavier. The fog was getting thicker.
Suddenly blood trickled down my face.
“What was that?!” Johann frantically looked around. There was no one.
But there was a low slashing sound in the air. It was d=faint but I was sure there was something.
“Don’t move Johann,” I warned him.
“Our eyes are deceiving us,”
Johann nodded and he stayed still in his position.
“Should I try summoning a spirit?”
“Okay, let’s try that,”
Johann snapped his fingers. But nothing came out. He snapped again. But once again it failed.
Then a silhouette emerged from the fog before us it was a familiar form.
“Nellie?” I spoke. But the expression on her face was not of Nellie.
“Some animals are caught in the trap huh?” she said.
I clenched my fist. I was right. There was something different.
“Antonella, let’s go back,” I said.
I stepped forward and cuts began to appear in my skin.
“Moria, stop,” Johann pleaded.
I glanced at him and smiled.
“It’s okay Johann”
“I will not. I will resurrect the Grand Arch Wizard. Because that is my duty,” was the words that came out of Antonella’s mouth. And it made me stop on my tracks.